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Diary of a (Maybe) Retired Pastor

Tag: Jesus Christ

  • The Promised Land Forever?

    mayberetiredpastor

    The Promised Land Forever?

    The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 ‘Come, go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.’ 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4 The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him. 5 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 6 Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the Lord. Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 7 At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, 8 but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it.

    Jeremiah 18:1-8, Old Testament, The Bible

    According to a recent poll, 82% of Israelis are in favour of expelling the Palestinians from Gaza (1). The validity of the poll is disputed but there can be no doubt that a significant fraction of Israeli opinion is in favour of not only the expulsion of the Palestinians from Gaza but also from the West Bank. The reasons for this may be mixed but it is clear that for many in Israel, and especially the Israeli government, it is a theological conviction – as one Israeli woman put it in a recent BBC interview, “God gave us this land” (see e.g. 2). But they are not alone in  holding this belief, it is a view held by some Christians outside of Israel whose attitude is that Israel is justified in anything it does to “recover” the lands given to it by God.

    Such a belief is based on a profoundly faulty understanding of the Bible. The promises of God are considered, in this belief, as unilateral and unchangeable, but the relationship between God and His people is actually defined by covenant. God’s promises to His people are covenant promises. There are two sides to a covenant, on one side, God promises to uphold His obligations provided that the other side – His people – uphold theirs. Since God is faithful and does not change, the question  is will the people be faithful and uphold theirs? The whole history of the people of Israel in the Bible is that they consistently fail to do so, and as a result, they lose their privileges under the covenant. God’s graciousness is evidenced by the fact that He repeatedly offers the people a way back.

    The prophets in the Bible constantly rail against the people of God warning of their many failures and the consequences if they fail to repent and keep the covenant. The quotation above from the prophet Jeremiah is one such warning. Here, the famous example of a potter and how the potter shapes and decides the fate of a piece of pottery is used to drive home the point that God can and will punish the people if they fail to keep the provisions of the covenant. Jeremiah’s prophecy is particularly relevant to the question of the “Promised Land” because he explicitly warns that the land will be taken away from the people which is exactly what happens with the Babylonian conquest.

    For those holding a theological view of the ownership of Gaza and the West Bank, the unbridled vengeance carried out by the Israeli government since the Hamas attack and the deliberate programme of ethnic cleansing places them far outside the covenant and thus beyond the privileges of the covenant. The covenant demands better of the people of God.

    Since Jesus Christ, the only way back to the covenant is to recognise that He is the Son of God and own Him as Lord and Saviour (3).  And, in the renewed covenant, the Promised Land can now be seen as merely a pre-figuring of the true Kingdom which comes only with the new creation. There is nothing special about the patch of land between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean, no special rules apply, and certainly no difference in the ethical and moral treatment of the land and its people.

    1. “Yes to Transfer”, Haaretz, 28th. May, 2025
    2. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8d1j3v2y3mo
    3. Gospel of John, 3:18, New Testament, The Bible

  • People Of The New Song

    mayberetiredpastor

    People Of The New Song

    And they sang a new song, saying:

    “You are worthy to take the scroll
        and to open its seals,
    because you were slain,
        and with your blood you purchased for God
        persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.
    10 You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God,
        and they will reign on the earth.

    Revelation 5:9-10, New Testament, The Bible.

    An outraged Daily Telegraph headline sometime in the summer last year demanded to know why a church had decided to drop the word “Church” from its name. At about the same time, one of the congregations I had initiated at my last church had set about renaming itself.  This set me off on a train of thought concerning the significance of names, particularly in relation to churches. Why do people choose the names they do for their churches or congregations? What does it mean for them and why does it matter? I tend to lean towards the functional and utilitarian with a quirky twist, hence, simply using the time at which the new congregation met on a Sunday as the name (7:15!) seemed perfectly adequate to me and when it started meeting at a new time it simply added a little quirkiness and mystery to the congregation! Clearly, this did not sit so well with others who, well, need something more approachable and human? (My wife thinks the Big Bang Theory’s Sheldon and I bear some remarkable affinities, although not, perhaps, in brain power!).

    Names are to do with identity and, so, outraged of Tunbridge Wells above presumably felt some attack on their communal identity when the local church decided to drop the word “Church”. When it comes to groups or organisations, names need to communicate something about what they are, and people need to be able to identify with these groups or organisations. What should a church or congregation seek to communicate as it describes itself? What should Christians seek to communicate about themselves? For good or bad “church” and “Christian” are themselves names deeply embedded in our culture  and loaded with thousands of years of meaning – some of it not very flattering – but once, they were new, freshly minted, communicating something vibrant and fresh and unexpected to the wider culture. The Bible itself testifies to this newness in its very division into the Old Testament and the New Testament. The “New” Testament is the book about the church, about the Christians – something new and unimagined. Is there a way of re-capturing this freshness and newness?

    The book of Revelation – the last book of the Bible – has, as one of its threads, the depiction of worship in heaven. It is about the songs that thread eternity and underpin the fabric of creation. In this sense, it is nothing new in the literature of the Bible. Worship in heaven is timeless and universal, never ending and never changing, but then Revelation introduces something quite remarkable, quite stunning: a new song is heard! The timeless, unchanging worship of heaven is changed! What has brought this about? It is Jesus Christ, His death on the Cross and His resurrection has caused heaven to break into new song, new worship, and the writer of Revelation leaves us in no doubt as to the significance of this as he ends his book with the description of a new heaven and a new earth – a new creation taking the place of the old because a new song is sung.

    In choosing names for themselves, Christians have not, as far as I know, ever chosen the name “People of the New Song” but that is what they are, and it is an identity that perhaps would help them to be as new and as fresh as they were all those centuries ago.  What song will Christians sing going on into the New Year?      

  • A Christian Country?

    mayberetiredpastor

    A Christian Country?

    … to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’ 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,

    14 ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven,
        and on earth peace, goodwill among people!’

    Luke 2:11-14 New Testament, The Bible.

    We really enjoy watching the detective series “Death in Paradise”.  Set in the gorgeous Caribbean, each episode begins with a grisly death followed immediately by the jaunty reggae theme tune of the series! The incongruity always makes us laugh and is possibly our favourite part of each episode. Because we enjoy it so much we also follow the spin-offs and we have been re-watching series one of “Beyond Paradise” which follows two particular characters from the original series as they re-settle in the UK. We didn’t intend to do so, but we found ourselves watching the Christmas special just as Advent began. So, wholly appropriate!

    This year has seen the release of more data from the 2021 census. One of the headlines has been the report, for the first time, that less than half of the population identify as “Christian” leading to much discussion around the theme of “the UK is no longer a Christian country”. I have even been contacted by friends from the Far East bemoaning the “shocking” news.  But Christmas specials, like the one we watched last week, should, perhaps, make us pause a little before writing-off the UK as a Christian country.

    This particular episode of Beyond Paradise ended with the community gathering in the town square for their Christmas celebration.  They rejoiced and celebrated peace and goodwill to all. Above all, It was full of hope for the future and, as these things are designed to do, left the viewer with warm, joyful feelings.  “Serious” Christians tend to be cynical about the Christmas season as celebrated by the wider community, and, indeed, the modern Christmas season includes much dross, but, yet, carol services are full and churches tend see more people than at any other time of the year; it is the time of year when people give most to good causes and, we, as a wider community, seek to recognise those who have quietly served their communities through the year.   

    It may be the case that the numbers of people identifying themselves as Christian has fallen below half the population but as a nation we still hold closely to key elements of the message of the angels. In that sense we remain very much a Christian country. It is cultural but it is an act of faith baked into our cultural foundations, maybe this is the reason why many in the world still want to come to the UK despite the many disincentives – the message of the angels is still heard by them in this collective act of faith.

    This isn’t to claim that this is a nation that knows Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, but that hasn’t been the case since the middle of the last century – if not longer. But the fact that so much of the gospel message is still retained is an encouragement to the church to continue proclaiming the full gospel of Jesus Christ so that the smouldering faith still held by the nation can be fanned into life: Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was born amongst us; lived amongst us; gave His life for us on the Cross; and was raised again on the third day so that all who believe in Him shall not die but have everlasting life! This is why we celebrate and rejoice at Christmas time.

  • When Is A Tax-Cut Not A Tax-Cut

    mayberetiredpastor

    When Is A Tax-Cut Not A Tax-Cut?

    But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ …

    Ephesians 4:15

    When is a tax-cut not a tax-cut? When it’s a Tory one! We are in the throes of general election hype and spin. The Conservative Party has announced that if voted back into government the state pension will never be taxed even if it increases above the current tax-free threshold of around £12,500. They are presenting this as a tax-cut, which it isn’t because the state pension does not currently exceed the tax-free threshold and won’t for a good few years to come, so nobody’s actually paying any tax on their state pensions! Setting that aside, in itself it’s not a bad idea and certainly worth considering. I was pleasantly surprised at the amount  I received in state pension (currently around £800 a month) but it wouldn’t be easy to survive on it if it were all the income you had as a pensioner. So, to have the assurance that it will never be taxed would reassure those who do rely wholly or mostly on it.  But it isn’t a tax-cut.

    Which brings me to Rachel Reeves and Labour. On Sunday, she ruled out any increases in income tax or National Insurance if she were to be Chancellor in the next government. Instead, she reassures “us” (which “us” would that be I wonder?) that Labour is the natural party for business and will “grow the economy” in order to raise funds for the spending plans of a future Labour government. Nonetheless, she concedes that she would have “difficult decisions” to make on spending! Meanwhile, Keir Starmer has pledged to hit the 18 week waiting time target for NHS consultations within five years of assuming power. So, I wonder how is Labour going to do that – closing all the prisons and releasing all prisoners into the community perhaps, maybe this is the “difficult” spending decision Rachel Reeves will make? It would certainly save a lot of money which could be diverted to the NHS!

    Our political culture is one in which the major protagonists refuse to be honest. We cannot have an honest debate on tax and spending, instead of setting out the alternatives and the costs and consequences of the various alternatives we are fed sound bites intended to lull or deceive into acceptance. Why can Rachel Reeves not say I have to raise £x billions to ensure that we can hit the 18 week NHS consultation targets which may mean raising taxes by  x%, but if the economy grows by a  certain amount it may be less? Why do the Tories have to dress-up a proposal worth considering as a “tax-cut” when it is nothing of the sort? The Bible teaches us to “speak the truth in love” but as a society we seem incapable of doing this. Unfortunately, this simply opens the doors to Satan, the father of lies as Jesus famously described him, with the terrible consequences that we see and hear about all too frequently.

  • The NHS and Christ’s Return

    mayberetiredpastor

    The NHS and Christ’s Return

    … that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

    Romans 8:21

    What has the UK National Health Service  (NHS) got to do with the Second Coming?  The Apostle Paul’s somewhat enigmatic passage in the middle of chapter 8 of his letter to the Romans reminds us that salvation is not just about us – human beings – it is about the whole of creation. Moreover, it implies that that salvation is, in some sense, in the hands of the saved – followers of Jesus. In other words, what we do, what we make and build and institute here on earth matters for the salvation of creation. It isn’t just a matter of the apocalyptic destruction of the old and the descent of the new from on high. 

    The NHS is intended to provide the best healthcare to everyone for zero cost to the patient. The NHS does not make judgements as to how you come to require its services, if you need healthcare, you get it. So, if you’re a smoker and need care for lung cancer you get it – no questions asked. You get it not because you deserve it, but because you need it. You get it not because you can afford it, but because you need it. And you get the best. It is funded through general taxation. Everyone contributes to the cost according to their ability. Everyone benefits. In Christian terms, the NHS is a ministry of grace. As such, it is most certainly an expression of the Kingdom of God. Of course, in the same way that Christians are not yet perfect, so the NHS is not perfect, it is a work in progress, just as an individual Christian is. But it’s end-point is the tree of life in the heavenly city pictured in chapter 22 of the book of Revelation where the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations and can be gathered by anyone whenever they have need.

    Christians often ask how long it will be before Christ returns, especially at times when turmoil seems to dominate the world. How long will it be before He returns and brings with Him the New Creation and the lion sits with the lamb? Romans 8 suggests that this is partly in our hands! The more we are able to put into place those things that are of the Kingdom the sooner will Christ return. So, if you are one of those longing for the return of Christ you should be fiercely protective of the NHS.  You must resist the worshippers of Mammon who would seek to disable, dismantle it; who seek to alter its fundamental nature and premise. The NHS must remain an institution of grace else Christ’s return will continue to be delayed.